# Synthetic biology-based detection of micronutrients with minimal equipment

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2020 · $355,050

## Abstract

Project Summary
The goal of the proposed work is to create bacteria that detect the level of a micronutrient (vitamin
or mineral) in a sample, with ultimate application to human blood tests. The micronutrient to be
detected is zinc. These cells will enable the later development of minimal-equipment testing of
blood zinc levels in remote, resource-poor locations, a significant improvement in both the time
and cost necessary using current state-of-the-art methods. The cells use a genetic circuit
controlled by zinc-sensitive transcription factors to produce different colored pigment based on
the zinc concentration in the sample, indicating whether zinc levels are acceptable or low. Thus,
the cells function as a sort of easy-to-read “bacterial litmus test”. Strong preliminary work supports
the likelihood of our success. The first aim involves creating the bacterial strain capable of
producing three different pigments in response to different levels of extracellular zinc. The second
aim involves making the existing circuit repress pigment production until the assay is performed,
allowing for the pre-culture of colorless cells that will enable fast coloration and overcome
obstacles to sensor cell survival in human blood samples.The third aim consists of tuning the
cells' performance when grown in actual blood samples, since work to date has used laboratory
growth medium which may yield different results than growth in the long-term target samples.
This project will yield the underlying technology that can be used for the first-ever bacterial blood
test for low-resource settings to provide population-level assessment of micronutrient status. By
being low-cost and essentially point-of-care, such a long-term result would enable nutritional
epidemiologists and policymakers to make more informed decisions about nutritional
interventions, as well as to assess the success of interventions after the fact, potentially improving
the health of millions of undernourished people. Moreover, the pigment-producing genetic circuit
establishes a framework that can be applied for the development of other micronutrient sensors
using different nutrient-binding proteins, potentially allowing a whole panel of inexpensive tests.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10006081
- **Project number:** 5R01EB022592-04
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Philip-Walter Styczynski
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $355,050
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-21 → 2022-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10006081

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10006081, Synthetic biology-based detection of micronutrients with minimal equipment (5R01EB022592-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-02 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10006081. Licensed CC0.

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